credited As

Tribeca Film via Everett Collection
For a film that involves a love triangle, mental illness, a Bohemian colony of free-spirits, an impending war and several important historical figures, the most exciting elements of Summer in February are the stunning shots of the English country and Cornish seaside. The rest of the film never quite lives up to the crashing waves and sun-dappled meadows that are used to bookend the scenes, as the entertaining opening never manages to coalesce into a story that lives up the the cinematography, let alone the lives of the people that inspired it.
Set in an Edwardian artist’s colony in Cornwall, Summer in February tells the story of A.J. Munnings (Dominic Cooper), who went on to become one of the most famous painters of his day and head of the Royal Academy of Art, his best friend, estate agent and part-time soldier Gilbert Evans (Dan Stevens), and the woman whom they both loved, aspiring artist Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning). Her marriage to Munnings was an extremely unhappy one, and she attempted suicide on their honeymoon, before killing herself in 1914. According to his journals, Gilbert and Florence were madly in love, although her marriage and his service in the army kept them apart.
When the film begins, Munnings is the center of attention in the Lamorna Artist's Colony, dramatically reciting poetry at parties and charming his way out of his bar tab while everyone around him proclaims him to be a genius. When he’s not drinking or painting, he’s riding horses with Gilbert, who has the relatively thankless task of keeping this group of Bohemians in line. Their idyllic existence is disrupted by the arrival of Florence, who has run away from her overbearing father and the fiancé he had picked out for her in order to become a painter.
Stevens and Browning both start the film solidly, with enough chemistry between them to make their infatuation interesting. He manages to give Gilbert enough dependable charm to win over both Florence and the audience, and she presents Florence as someone with enough spunk and self-possession to go after what she wants. Browning’s scenes with Munnings are equally entertaining in the first third of the film, as she can clearly see straight through all of his bravado and he is intrigued by her and how difficult she is to impress. Unfortunately, while the basis of the love triangle is well-established and entertaining, it takes a sudden turn into nothing with a surprise proposal from Munnings.
Neither the film nor Browning ever make it clear why Florence accepts his proposal, especially when they have both taken great pains to establish that she doesn’t care much for him. But once she does, the films stalls, and both Stevens and Browning spend the rest of the film doing little more than staring moodily and longingly at the people around them. The real-life Florence was plagued by depression and mental instability, but neither the film nor Browning’s performance ever manage to do more than give the subtlest hint at that darkness. On a few occasions, Browning does manage to portray a genuine anguish, but rather than producing any sympathy from the audience, it simply conjures up images of a different film, one that focused more on Florence, and the difficulties of being a woman with a mental illness at a time when both were ignored or misunderstood.
Stevens is fine, and Gilbert starts out with the same kind of good-guy appeal the won the heart of Mary Crawley and Downton Abbey fans the world over. However, once the film stalls, so does his performance, and he quickly drops everything that made the character attractive or interesting in favor of longing looks and long stretches of inactivity. He does portray a convincing amount of adoration for Florence, although that's about the only real emotion that Gilbert expresses for the vast majority of the film, and even during his love scene, he never manages to give him any amount of passion.
Cooper does his best with what he’s given, and tries his hardest to imbue the film with some substance and drama. His Munnings is by turns charming, brash, and brooding, the kind of person who has been told all of their life that they are special, and believes it. He even manages to give the character some depth, and even though he and Browning have very little chemistry, he manages to convey a genuine affection for her. It’s a shame that Munnings becomes such a deeply unlikable character, because Cooper is the only thing giving Summer in February a jolt of life – even if it comes via bursts of thinly-explained hostility. It's hard to watch just how hard he's working to connect with his co-stars and add some excitement to a lifeless script and not wish that he had a better film to show off his talents in.
Unfortunately, by the time Florence and Gilbert are finally spurred into activity, the film has dragged on for so long that you’re no longer invested in the characters, their pain, or their love story, even if you want to be. Which is the real disappointment of Summer in February; underneath the stalled plot and the relatively one-note acting, there are glimmers of a fascinating and compelling story that’s never allowed to come to the forefront.
2/5
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Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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Presidents were this year's hot item on the big and small screens, but pop culture has always been obsessed with dressing up actors to look like the men who fill our text books. Inspired by 2012's trend, Hollywood.com has combed through cinematic history to whip up this handy infographic, chronicling decades of Presidential appearances in pop culture. In the end, one thing is clear: Futurama did a lot in the name of presidential representation.
Check below the image for the key, revealing the actor assigned to each president.
Click to Enlarge
David Morse as George Washington in John Adams
William Daniels as John Adams in 1776
Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson in Paris
Burgess Meredith as James Madison in Magnificent Doll
Morgan Wallace as James Monroe in Alexander Hamilton
Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in Amistad
Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson in The President's Lady
Nigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren in Amistad
David Clennon as William Henry Harrison in Tecumseh (1994)
John Tyler in Futurama
James K. Polk in Futurama
James Gammon as Zachary Taylor in One Man's Hero
Millard Fillmore has never been portrayed
Franklin Pierce in Futurama
James Buchanan has never been portrayed
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln
Dennis Clark as Andrew Johnson in The Conspirator
Kevin Kline as Ulysses S. Grant in Wild Wild West
John DiMaggio as Rutherford B. Hayes in Futurama
Francis Sayles as James A. Garfield in The Night Riders
Maurice LaMarche as Chester A. Arthur in Futurama
Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in Futurama
Roy Gordon as Benjamin Harrison in Futurama
Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in Futurama
Brian Keith as William McKinley in Rough Riders
Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Walter Massey as William Howard Taft in The Greatest Game Ever Played
Bob Gunton as Woodrow Wilson in Iron Jawed Angels
Warren G. Harding in Futurama
Calvin Coolidge in Futurama
Herbert Hoover in Futurama
Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on the Hudson
Gary Sinise as Harry S. Truman in Truman
Tom Selleck as Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-Day
Bruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy Thirteen Days
Randy Quaid as Lyndon B. Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years
Dan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in Dick
Dick Crockett as Gerald Ford in Pink Panther Strikes Again
Dan Aykroyd as Jimmy Carter in Saturday Night Live
James Brolin as Ronald Reagan in The Reagans
James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush in W.
Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton in The Special Relationship
Timothy Bottoms as George W. Bush in That's My Bush!
Jordan Peele as Barack Obama in Key and Peele
[Photo Credit: Hollywood.com]
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2012 was a heated year for Presidential politics, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney vying for the position of Commander-in-Chief and the battle of ideologies dominating every facet of pop culture. Movies and television also did their fair share of respectful homage-ing to the Head of State, with Daniel Day-Lewis' stirring portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Spielberg's Lincoln (and the vampire-hunting alternative), Jordan Peele finding room to mock our sitting Prez in Key and Peele, and Bill Murray finding the swinger side of America's only four-termer, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in this weekend's Hyde Park on the Hudson. History teachers across the country have never been prouder of what they do than in the last 365 days.
Presidents were this year's hot item on the big and small screens, but pop culture has always been obsessed with dressing up actors to look like the men who fill our text books. Inspired by 2012's trend, Hollywood.com has combed through cinematic history to whip up this handy infographic, chronicling decades of Presidential appearances in pop culture. In the end, one thing is clear: Futurama did a lot in the name of presidential representation.
Check below the image for the key, revealing the actor assigned to each president.
Click to EnlargeDavid Morse as George Washington in John AdamsWilliam Daniels as John Adams in 1776Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson in ParisBurgess Meredith as James Madison in Magnificent DollMorgan Wallace as James Monroe in Alexander HamiltonAnthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in AmistadCharlton Heston as Andrew Jackson in The President's LadyNigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren in AmistadDavid Clennon as William Henry Harrison in Tecumseh (1994)John Tyler in FuturamaJames K. Polk in FuturamaJames Gammon as Zachary Taylor in One Man's HeroMillard Fillmore has never been portrayedFranklin Pierce in FuturamaJames Buchanan has never been portrayedDaniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in LincolnDennis Clark as Andrew Johnson in The ConspiratorKevin Kline as Ulysses S. Grant in Wild Wild WestJohn DiMaggio as Rutherford B. Hayes in FuturamaFrancis Sayles as James A. Garfield in The Night RidersMaurice LaMarche as Chester A. Arthur in Futurama Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in FuturamaRoy Gordon as Benjamin Harrison in FuturamaPat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in FuturamaBrian Keith as William McKinley in Rough RidersRobin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt in Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianWalter Massey as William Howard Taft in The Greatest Game Ever PlayedBob Gunton as Woodrow Wilson in Iron Jawed AngelsWarren G. Harding in FuturamaCalvin Coolidge in FuturamaHerbert Hoover in FuturamaBill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on the HudsonGary Sinise as Harry S. Truman in TrumanTom Selleck as Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-DayBruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy Thirteen DaysRandy Quaid as Lyndon B. Johnson in LBJ: The Early YearsDan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in DickDick Crockett as Gerald Ford in Pink Panther Strikes AgainDan Aykroyd as Jimmy Carter in Saturday Night LiveJames Brolin as Ronald Reagan in The ReagansJames Cromwell as George H. W. Bush in W.Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton in The Special RelationshipTimothy Bottoms as George W. Bush in That's My Bush!Jordan Peele as Barack Obama in Key and Peele
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Illustration by Hollywood.com; Photo Credits: Comedy Central (12); HBO (4); Columbia Pictures (2); Warner Bros (2); DreamWorks (2); 20th Century Fox (3); NBC(2); Touchstone Pictures; Universal Pictures; Turner Pictures; Paramount Pictures; Orion Pictures; Roadside Attractions; Republic Pictures; TNT; Buena Vista Pictures; Focus Features; A&amp;E; New Line; United Artists; Showtime; Lionsgate; iStockphoto]
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It’s threesome week on text DWTS! Heh, heh… but actually. This week, to fill a timeslot that’s roughly two hours longer than it needs to be, the celebs and their dancing dates performed two dances, one as a tribute to U.S. military veterans (aww) and the other a Latin trio. I’m sure how patriotic that is, exactly, but let’s go with it.
First off, the tribute performances.
Shawn &amp; Derek
The dynamic duo performed a Viennese waltz to Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel.” I get that the wardrobe people clearly wanted us to see Shawn as an angel, given the white dress and all, but really, even Shawn Johnson, America’s Sweetheart™, doesn’t look angelic in that deep of a neckline. Derek, on the other hand, looked like my dream soldier. Marry me?
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 9.5
Bruno: 10
Apolo &amp; Karina
Once again, Apolo showcased his love of literally throwing Karina around in the air. Granted, his zipline entrance was pretty incredible, but his outfit (a military vest with no shirt underneath) ruined the mood. Honestly, is that even comfortable? I found myself more concerned about his risk of chafing than his actual performance. No regrets.
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 9.5
Bruno: 10
Kirstie &amp; Maks
I have to hand it to Kirstie – I actually almost enjoyed this dance. Kirstie was pretty good, and even vaguely graceful. Of course, this being Kirstie, you know she always finds some way to ruin the magic, and today, the culprit was her atrocious hat. I can picture the backstage scene now: someone definitely pinned that hat to her head and went, “Oh, how jaunty! This is perfect.” To that person, I say: you are wrong. So, so terribly wrong.
Carrie Ann: 9
Len: 9
Bruno: 9
Kelly &amp; Val
I’d like to take a moment to stop complaining about the wardrobe department and instead focus on the stage crew. Someone in the staff seems to have decided that a smoke machine is essential to DWTS’ success. It’s not. It’s distracting. Half of Kelly’s performance was obscured by smoke. I couldn’t even tell whether she and Val made out at the end of their routine. Oh, who am I kidding? They totally did.
Carrie Ann: 9.5
Len: 9
Bruno: 9.5
Gilles &amp; Peta
Are you sitting down? This is the biggest DWTS news all season. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Are you ready? PETA WORE A FULL BODY JUMPSUIT. As in, she didn’t take it off halfway through the dance, she didn’t wear a nude-colored ensemble that made her look naked, and she didn’t have any fringe. Just a full-on jumpsuit. Has she ever worn this many clothes at once? I’ve never been prouder.
Carrie Ann: 9.5
Len: 10
Bruno: 10
Emmitt &amp; Cheryl
Approximately how many emus did the wardrobe department have to kill to put Cheryl in that gown? My money’s on at least four. I hope she isn’t ticklish, otherwise that must have been absolute torture. As for Emmitt, he consistently has the classiest outfits of any male dancer, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that he really doesn’t do much on the dance floor. America, I ask you: you chose this man over Sabrina Bryan?
Carrie Ann: 9
Len: 9
Bruno: 9.5
Melissa &amp; Tony
Hey, wardrobe department? Yeah, sorry about everything I said before. Melissa and Tony’s Motherboy XXX costumes make up for all of your past mistakes – and more. I was physically incapable of watching this performance without imagining George Michael Bluth in a sailor costume, and that’s totally fine with me. The costume team, like the actual dancers, gets a perfect 10.
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 10
Bruno: 10
The second half of the evening was devoted to the threesomes. No, I will never not think that’s funny. And neither will Bruno – he was loving the awkward sexual comments.
Shawn, Derek &amp; Mark BallasThis tribal trio might literally be the scariest thing I’ve seen on DWTS – and remember, I’ve watched every dance Kirstie Alley has ever done. Granted, the tribal-inspired routine was really well done and intense, but it was also really creepy, and there is nothing weirder than seeing Derek and Mark pelvic thrust in coordinated time.
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 7
Bruno: 9
Apolo, Karina, &amp; Sasha Farber
It must have been hard for Apolo to dance in perfect coordination to Sasha, since they just aren’t at the same skill level. But he held his own, and for once in my life, I wasn’t horrified by his outfit, his hair, or his dancing. So that makes this a winning performance in my book. If only he’d lose the soul patch.
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 9.5
Bruno: 9.5
Kirstie, Maks &amp; Tristan McManus
Remember when I said Kirstie was almost good in the last dance? That was before she performed to seventh-grade-goth favorite “My Immortal” by Evanescence. Did I mention that all three dancers were wearing feathery wings? Wardrobe department, stop killing birds. Please.
Carrie Ann: 8
Len: 8
Bruno: 8
Kelly, Val &amp; Louis Van Amstel
There was no smoke machine this time, meaning we didn’t have to guess about Kelly and Val making out (they did). I can’t help but wonder how tense rehearsals must have been with the three of them, given that the partners probably spend half their time canoodling in a dark corner of the studio. Poor Louis.
Carrie Ann: 9.5
Len: 9.5
Bruno: 9.5
Gilles, Peta and Chelsie Hightower
No one panic. Peta has returned to her normal almost-naked state, donning a truly horrific Vegas showgirl outfit for the evening’s second number. Gilles, too, was back in natural form, with a deep-V neck shirt and a whole lot of shimmying. I’m just glad to see everything is back to normal – I was worried for a minute.
Carrie Ann: 9.5
Len: 10
Bruno: 9.5
Emmitt, Cheryl and Kym Johnson
Is anyone else starting to get suspicious that Emmitt can’t actually dance? After carefully watching and re-watching his dances every week, I’ve come to the conclusion that his only saving grace is his (truly stunning) hip swivels. Other than that, though, he really doesn’t do much on the dance floor.
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 10
Bruno: 10
Melissa, Tony, and Henry Byalikov
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Melissa is so good she shouldn’t be in this competition. It’s just not fair. Even her trashy Moulin Rouge-inspired costume and the inexplicable scream she let out halfway through her performance can’t take away from the fact that she, more than anyone else, has been consistently solid throughout the whole season.
Carrie Ann: 10
Len: 10
Bruno: 10
Since there wasn’t an elimination last week (thanks, election!), tomorrow’s show will feature a double elimination. Who will go home? Who will stay? We’ll just have to wait and see… but seriously, don’t let me down, America.
[Image Credit: WENN]
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David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas consists of six stories set in various periods between 1850 and a time far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future. Each segment lives on its own the previous first person account picked up and read by a character in its successor creating connective tissue between each moment in time. The various stories remain intact for Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) Lana Wachowski's and Andy Wachowski's (The Matrix) film adaptation which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The massive change comes from the interweaving of the book's parts into one three-hour saga — a move that elevates the material and transforms Cloud Atlas in to a work of epic proportions.
Don't be turned off by the runtime — Cloud Atlas moves at lightning pace as it cuts back and forth between its various threads: an American notary sailing the Pacific; a budding musician tasked with transcribing the hummings of an accomplished 1930's composer; a '70s-era investigatory journalist who uncovers a nefarious plot tied to the local nuclear power plant; a book publisher in 2012 who goes on the run from gangsters only to be incarcerated in a nursing home; Sonmi~451 a clone in Neo Seoul who takes on the oppressive government that enslaves her; and a primitive human from the future who teams with one of the few remaining technologically-advanced Earthlings in order to survive. Dense but so was the unfamiliar world of The Matrix. Cloud Atlas has more moving parts than the Wachowskis' seminal sci-fi flick but with additional ambition to boot. Every second is a sight to behold.
The members of the directing trio are known for their visual prowess but Cloud Atlas is a movie about juxtaposition. The art of editing is normally a seamless one — unless someone is really into the craft the cutting of a film is rarely a post-viewing talking point — but Cloud Atlas turns the editor into one of the cast members an obvious player who ties the film together with brilliant cross-cutting and overlapping dialogue. Timothy Cavendish the elderly publisher could be musing on his need to escape and the film will wander to the events of Sonmi~451 or the tortured music apprentice Robert Frobisher also feeling the impulse to run. The details of each world seep into one another but the real joy comes from watching each carefully selected scene fall into place. You never feel lost in Cloud Atlas even when Tykwer and the Wachowskis have infused three action sequences — a gritty car chase in the '70s a kinetic chase through Neo Seoul and a foot race through the forests of future millennia — into one extended set piece. This is a unified film with distinct parts echoing the themes of human interconnectivity.
The biggest treat is watching Cloud Atlas' ensemble tackle the diverse array of characters sprinkled into the stories. No film in recent memory has afforded a cast this type of opportunity yet another form of juxtaposition that wows. Within a few seconds Tom Hanks will go from near-neanderthal to British gangster to wily 19th century doctor. Halle Berry Hugh Grant Jim Sturgess Jim Broadbent Ben Whishaw Hugo Weaving and Susan Sarandon play the same game taking on roles of different sexes races and the like. (Weaving as an evil nurse returning to his Priscilla Queen of the Desert cross-dressing roots is mind-blowing.) The cast's dedication to inhabiting their roles on every level helps us quickly understand the worlds. We know it's Halle Berry behind the fair skinned wife of the lunatic composer but she's never playing Halle Berry. Even when the actors are playing variations on themselves they're glowing with the film's overall epic feel. Jim Broadbent's wickedly funny modern segment a Tykwer creation that packs a particularly German sense of humor is on a smaller scale than the rest of the film but the actor never dials it down. Every story character and scene in Cloud Atlas commits to a style. That diversity keeps the swirling maelstrom of a movie in check.
Cloud Atlas poses big questions without losing track of its human element the characters at the heart of each story. A slower moment or two may have helped the Wachowskis' and Tykwer's film to hit a powerful emotional chord but the finished product still proves mainstream movies can ask questions while laying over explosive action scenes. This year there won't be a bigger movie in terms of scope in terms of ideas and in terms of heart than Cloud Atlas.
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With each outing in his evolving filmmaking career actor-turned-director Ben Affleck has amped up the scope. Gone Baby Gone was a character drama woven into a hard-boiled mystery. The Town saw Affleck dabble in action pulling off bank heists many compared to the expertise of Heat. In Argo the director pulls off his most daring effort melding one part caper comedy and two parts edge-of-your-seat political thriller into an exhilarating theatrical experience.
At the height of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 anti-Shah militants stormed the U.S. embassy and captured 52 American hostages. Six managed to escape the raid finding refuge in the Canadian ambassador's home. Within hours the militants began a search for the missing Americans sifting through shredded paperwork for even the smallest bit of evidence. Under pressure by the ticking clock the CIA worked quickly to formulate a plan to covertly rescue the six embassy workers. Despite a lengthy list of possibilities only Tony Mendez (Affleck) had a plan just enticing enough to unsuspecting Iranian officials to work: the CIA would fake a Hollywood movie shoot.
There's nothing in Argo or Affleck's portrayal of Mendez that would tell you the technical operations officer has the imagination to conjure his master plan — Affleck perhaps to differentiate himself from the past plays his character with so much restraint he looks dead in the eyes — but when the Hollywood hijinks swing into full motion so does Argo. Mendez hooks up with Planet of the Apes makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to convince all of Hollywood that their sci-fi blockbuster "Argo " is readying for production. With enough promotional material concept art and press coverage Mendez and his team can convince the Iranian government they're a legit operation. A location scout in Tehran will be their method of extracting the bunkered down escapees.
Without an interesting lead to draw us in Affleck lets his eclectic ensemble do the heavy lifting. For the most part it works. Argo is basically two movies — Goodman and Arkin lead the Ocean's 11-esque half and Affleck takes the reigns when its time to get the six — another who's who of character actors including Tate Donovan Clea Duvall Scoot McNairy and Rory Cochrane — through the terrifying security of the Iranian airport. Arkin steals the show as a fast talking Hollywood type complete with year-winning catchphrase ("ArGo f**k yourself!) while McNairy adds a little more humanity to the spy mission when his character butts heads with Mendez. The split lessens the impact of each section but the tension in the escape is so high so taut that there's never a moment to check out.
Reality is on Affleck's side his camera floating through crowds of protestors and the streets of Tehran — a warscape where anything can happen. Each angle he chooses heightens the terror which starts to close in on the covert escape as they drift further and further from their homebase. Argo is a complete package with the '70s production design knowing when to play goofy (the fake movie's wild sci-fi designs) and when to remind us that problems took eight more steps to fix then they do today. Alexandre Desplat's score finds balance in haunting melodies and energetic pulses.
Part of Argo's charm is just how unreal the entire operation really was. To see the men and women involved go through with a plan they know could result in death. It's a suspenseful adventure and while there's not much in the way of character to cling to the visceral experience tends to be enough.
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It was the trickle of pee heard around the world. Cannes attendees were aghast and/or amused an infamous scene from The Paperboy that shows Nicole Kidman urinating on Zac Efron; this is apparently a great salve for jellyfish burns which were covering our Ken Doll-like protagonist. (In fact the term protagonist should be used very loosely for Efron's character Jack who is mostly acted upon than active throughout.)
Lurid! Sexy! Perverse! Trashy! Whether or not it's actually effective is overshadowed by all the hubbub that's attached itself to the movie for better or worse. In fact the movie is all of these things — but that's actually not a compliment. What could have become somethingmemorable is jaw-droppingly bad (when it's not hilarious). Director Lee Daniels uses a few different visual styles throughout from a stark black and white palette for a crime scene recreation at the beginning to a '70s porno aesthetic that oscillates between psychedelic and straight-up sweaty with an emphasis on Efron's tighty-whiteys. This only enhances the sloppiness of the script which uses lines like narrator/housekeeper/nanny Anita's (Macy Gray) "You ain't tired enough to be retired " to conjure up the down-home wisdom of the South. Despite Gray's musical talents she is not a good choice for a narrator or an actor for that matter. In a way — insofar as they're perhaps the only female characters given a chunk of screen time — her foil is Charlotte Bless Nicole Kidman's character. Anita is the mother figure who wears as we see in an early scene control-top pantyhose whereas Charlotte is all clam diggers and Barbie doll make-up. Or as Anita puts it "an oversexed Barbie doll."
The slapdash plot is that Jack's older brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) comes back to town with his colleague Yardley (David Oyelowo) to investigate the case of a death row criminal named Hillary Van Wetter. Yardley is black and British which seems to confuse many of the people he meets in this backwoods town. Hillary (John Cusack) hidden under a mop of greasy black hair) is a slack-jawed yokel who could care less if he's going to be killed for a crime he might or might not have committed. He is way more interested in his bride-to-be Charlotte who has fallen in love with him through letters — this is her thing apparently writing letters and falling in love with inmates — and has rushed to help Ward and Yardley free her man. In the meantime we're subjected to at least one simulated sex scene that will haunt your dreams forever. Besides Hillary's shortcomings as a character that could rustle up any sort of empathy the case itself is so boring it begs the question why a respected journalist would be interested enough to pursue it.
The rest of the movie is filled with longing an attempt to place any the story in some sort of social context via class and race even more Zac Efron's underwear sexual violence alligator innards swamp people in comically ramshackle homes and a glimpse of one glistening McConaughey 'tock. Harmony Korine called and he wants his Gummo back.
It's probably tantalizing for this cast to take on "serious" "edgy" work by an Oscar-nominated director. Cusack ditched his boombox blasting "In Your Eyes" long ago and Efron's been trying to shed his squeaky clean image for so long that he finally dropped a condom on the red carpet for The Lorax so we'd know he's not smooth like a Ken doll despite how he was filmed by Daniels. On the other hand Nicole Kidman has been making interesting and varied career choices for years so it's confounding why she'd be interested in a one-dimensional character like Charlotte. McConaughey's on a roll and like the rest of the cast he's got plenty of interesting projects worth watching so this probably won't slow him down. Even Daniels is already shooting a new film The Butler as we can see from Oprah's dazzling Instagram feed. It's as if they all want to put The Paperboy behind them as soon as possible. It's hard to blame them.

There's an allure to imperfection. With his latest drama Lawless director John Hillcoat taps directly into the side of human nature that draws us to it. Hillcoat finds it in Prohibition history a time when the regulations of alcohol consumption were subverted by most of the population; He finds it in the rural landscapes of Virginia: dingy raw and mesmerizing. And most importantly he finds it in his main character Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf) the scrappy third brother of a moonshining family who is desperate to prove his worth. Jack forcefully injects himself into the family business only to discover there's an underbelly to the underbelly. Lawless is a beautiful film that's violent as hell striking in a way only unfiltered Americana could be.
Acting as the driver for his two outlaw brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) isn't enough for Jack. He's enticed by the power of the gangster figure and entranced by what moonshine money can buy. So like any fledgling entrepreneur Jack takes matters into his own hands. Recruiting crippled family friend/distillery mastermind Cricket (Dane DeHaan) the young whippersnapper sets out to brew his own batch sell it to top dog Floyd Banner and make the family rich. The plan works — but it puts the Bondurant boys in over their heads with a new threat: the corrupt law enforcers of Chicago.
Unlike many stories of crime life Lawless isn't about escalation. The movie drifts back and forth leisurely popping in moments like the beats of a great TV episode. One second the Bondurants could be talking shop with their female shopkeep Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain). The next Forrest is beating the bloody pulp out of a cop blackmailing their operation. The plot isn't thick; Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave preferring to bask in the landscapes the quiet moments the haunting terror that comes with a life on the other side of the tracks. A feature film doesn't offer enough time for Lawless to build — it recalls cinema-level TV currently playing on outlets like HBO and AMC that have truly spoiled us — but what the duo accomplish is engrossing.
Accompanying the glowing visuals and Cave's knockout workout on the music side (a toe-tapping mix of spirituals bluegrass and the writer/musician's spine-tingling violin) are muted performances from some of Hollywood's rising stars. Despite LaBeouf's off-screen antics he lights up Lawless and nails the in-deep whippersnapper. His playful relationship with a local religious girl (Mia Wasikowska) solidifies him as a leading man but like everything in the movie you want more. Tom Hardy is one of the few performers who can "uurrr" and "mmmnerm" his way through a scene and come out on top. His greatest sparring partner isn't a hulking thug but Chastain who brings out the heart of the impenetrable beast. The real gem of Lawless is Guy Pearce as the Bondurant trio's biggest threat. Shaved eyebrows pristine city clothes and a temper like a rabid wolverine Pearce's Charlie Rakes is the most frightening villain of 2012. He viciously chews up every moment he's on screen. That's even before he starts drawing blood.
Lawless is the perfect movie for the late August haze — not quite the Oscary prestige picture or the summertime shoot-'em-up. It's drama that has its moonshine and swigs it too. Just don't drink too much.
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